The next morning, the four educators had to return to the Lared Academy. The departures left the Guild House feeling oddly empty, even with the five new additions, who Tessa was teaching basic writing lessons that morning.
It was an oversight in the selection process.
While they were all hard workers, and smart, none of them had attended a formal school, and their grasp of both the Demonic and Human Common languages were shaky at best.
They could read the textbook, but mostly by word recognition, and that simply would not do.
But the Red Dragon Clerics were good at taking care of kids of all sorts, even if their specialty was war orphans. So, she had brought out her old lesson books, and began teaching them more of the human common tongue this morning, as that was what most of the coursebooks were written in.
How and when that tongue had spread across the world was a mystery to Karl, but it seed that for textbooks, it was still the standard.
He had a suspicion that he might know the answer, though. The Common language was the one that Dragons chose to speak in humanoid form, as so few other species could speak Serpent, which didn't have a written language at all, other than the old magical runes.
So, as this was called the Dragon Isles, they had most likely maintained it as their tongue here, and the humans were the ones getting presumptuous by claiming it as their own common tongue.
Karl was sitting on the porch, enjoying the early dawn light and the sll of dew on the grass, when the first visitor of the morning ca into the yard.
A ragged looking catgirl, mostly human, but with ears in the sa white with black stripes as his bestial form, crept through the gate and then flopped down in the grass with a sigh of relief as the healing spell pulsed from the altar in the backyard.
Karl looked out toward the city gates, and caught the eye of a guard, who gestured toward the city, indicating that she hadn't co from the outside to see him.
It was still a bit cool outside to be wearing a tattered tunic as an outfit, so Karl brought over one of the knitted quilts Rae had made in a spiderweb pattern, and wrapped up the sleeping beastkin, then moved her to the other veranda swing in the sun.
They were still there, on opposite benches, when the first clients of the dawn ca.
A pair of Wrath Fiends with a group of six Orcish warriors behind them ca into the yard, where the Orcish folk promptly began fighting over who got to fill their canteens from the well first.
The Demons looked like they were going to apologize, but Karl just laughed and waved them inside. "Appraiser Davis isn't in yet, but Mick can help you with anything you would like." He inford the duo.
"Actually, we wanted to make a custom order for our next trip. You see, we're going around the southern tip to see the Orc King in Ghedg, and the Orcs lack most sorts of advanced crafting.
We wanted to bring them an assortnt of magical items, but they can't be combat related in any way." The larger of the two Wrath Demons explained.
Karl nodded. "Orcs don't accept weapons from others, only what they make among their own Clans.
But that's not a problem.
We actually have a wide variety of patterns for useful dostic items. Cleaning, filling canteens, bathing. We've got waterproof war paint, I can make many of the items using stone, bone and rough gems as well. I know that so clans prefer not to use the most refined of tals or intricately cut gems."
The Demon looked startled by Karl's words. "You know a lot about the tribal lands of the Orcs. There aren't many left who feel that way, most of the Clans are now becoming more tropolitan, with their tastes aligning to fancy clothing and almost human tastes in items. But there are still many in the deserts of Ghedg that are hard to shop for."
Karl smiled and gestured to the far wall of the shop behind him.
"We also have a wide variety of silk in multiple qualities. If you want to trade them raw silk so they can make their own fashions, I'm sure that most clans wouldn't turn it down.
I t a few clans in my holand that wouldn't take much more than food in trade, but I suspect that most aren't that restrictive." Karl offered.
The rchant winced, then smiled. "This will be a hard trip on our pockets either way. The potential profits are high, bringing magical items and silk down the coast. But the cost to load a trade ship, even a light Schooner like ours, is imnse."
Karl got up from his seat in the sun. "Let's go inside, and we can discuss what you need. I am certain that we can work out a bulk discount as long as you don't need massive amounts of higher grade trade items. Commander Rank and under, we have Journeyman tradespeople to assist with. But as a smaller Guild, our Overlord Ranked Master crafters are very limited."
The second Wrath Demon, who had been silent until that point, spoke with a gentle lisp.
"I will be honest with you, Overlord. We don't have the sort of funding that would be required to purchase even a handful of Master crafted items to trade. One or two, possibly. But even that would cost more than the average load for our ship."
Karl thought about that for a second. They had a good point. The one or two Overlord Ranked weapons they sold every month brought in more revenue than all the Commander Rank and lower items combined.
"Alright, there is no need for to pressure you to break the bank. How powerful did you need? Ascended and Commander? I don't think that we have any Awakened Rank apprentices at the mont, but we might have so old stock Awakened Rank Silk."
The two Demons silently conferred using System ssages. "Ascended and Commander Rank is fine. We would like to purchase three tonnes of silk bolts in varying colours. Also, if you can custom-make one roll at Commander or Royal Rank in the pattern that the n outside are wearing, I would like to gift them new tartan as a new year's gift."
Karl waited for Rae to confirm that much weight was viable.
"Alright, we can have that ready by morning. Now, let's talk about the rest of the shipnt."
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